NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The holidays can be hard for families who have lost loved ones.

One organization is making sure families of our country’s fallen military are not forgotten this Thanksgiving.

Inside a ballroom near Times Square, you’ll find the families of some of America’s bravest men and women. Their loved ones all share similar stories of heroism, but its shared loss that brings them together Thursday.

“He was a gentle warrior, it’s the best way to describe how he was and who he was.”

The 29 families all lost a husband, a wife, a mother, or father serving in the military. For many, like gold star spouse Alexa Ruiz, the grief was overwhelming. Finding the strength to attend a military gathering like this took 12 years.

“A lot of times when you deal with grief your family members and friends they can’t comprehend. They don’t come from a place where they can understand what it means to lose a soldier,” Ruiz said.

The Gary Sinise Foundation’s Snowball Express program hosts events year round for children of fallen heroes. Organizers say Thanksgiving is an especially important time to show support.

“Around the holidays it’s just difficult, they get questions, where is daddy, why isn’t he here?” Erika Gronenthal said.

This dinner isn’t just about fun or games, families say it has the power of healing, letting children bond with others who experience similar loss.

“We are like one big family now, it’s such a warm feeling. I need to let my daughter know that we aren’t the only ones in this situation,” Sharon Roderique said.

“It just brings a comfort in holidays like this.”

Families say they come as strangers, but in the end, they are all a shared family.

I am proud to say that I burned my junkie draft card during that junkie Vietnam war. Many of the men who obeyed that junkie draft law and went to junkie Vietnam came home in coffins, crippled, blinded, or as war criminals. Many of the men who obeyed that junkie draft law and went to Vietnam burned babies, women, children and old men while in that junkie place called Vietnam. There were many Mi Lai type massacres, but the New York Times only wrote news stories about the one that happened at Mi Lai. In the unlikely event that our junkie Trump government issues me another junkie draft card, I’ll burn it just like I burned my junkie Vietnam era draft card. I’d rather be a live coward than a dead hero.